The 23rd general meeting of All India Muslim Personal Law Board was held at Ujjian from 22 to 24 March, 2013 with Maulana Syed Mohammad Rabe Hasani Nadavi in the chair. Following are the resolutions passed in the meeting:
1- A delegation of the board has acquainted the then and the sitting Ministers for Minorities Affairs about the loopholes in the ‘Waqf (Amendment) Bill 2010’. And, after review of the Select Committee, some defects are still there in the Bill which the government has been made aware of. Now the Board demands from the government to table the bill in the current parliament session after amending it as per the suggestions made by the board and get it passed in both the houses.
2- The government must make apparent changes in the ‘Direct Taxes Bill’ to exempt the religious places and the religious and Non-Profit organisations from Income and Wealth taxes.
3- The Board has repeatedly made its stand clear over the government’s decision making the registration of every marriage compulsory as per the direction of the Apex Court. The Board is not against the registration but making it mandatory is similar to interfering in the Islamic Shari’ah apart from it being impracticable in the country. So the government should:
a- Not consider the unregistered marriage invalid.
b- Make the registration process easy. The registration of marriage maintained by Qazis should be considered adequate. The State Government, after acquiring details from the Qazi, should save those in its record as the government gets details of babies from hospitals.
4- Interference in Islamic Shari’ah through some court verdicts (especially those pertaining to divorce) is in practice on a regular basis which openly violates the ‘Shari’ah Application Act 1937’. The Board voices concern over the issue and demands from the government to get the Safety of Divorced Muslim Women Bill passed in the parliament with the amendments suggested by the Board to counter the problem.
5- As per Islamic belief, the mosques are the Houses of Allah and will be mosques forever. Neither their status can be changed nor would they be transferred from one place to another. The Board urges the Union government in general and especially the Government of Madhya Pradesh not to demolish any mosque or damage some parts of it in the name of road widening, etc. as it is derogation of the sacred places of Muslims. The government should refrain from such acts and design the roads and bridges in a manner that the mosques need not be damaged either completely or partially. The Board should also play its role to save the mosques. And it is upon Muslims as well to try stopping such acts of the government in a peaceful and constitutionally permissible manner.
6- Muslims believe in oneness of Allah and they strongly reject obeying any creature other than Him. But it is sad to know that administrators and teachers of schools in Madhya Pradesh and in some other states are forcing students (a) to perform Surya Namaskar, (b) to recite Vande Matram, in which the nation has been considered as god, (c) to recite Bhojan Mantra as per Hindu believes before dining in the school. These people are also trying to include some parts of the religious book of our co-religionists, The Gita, in the syllabus. The Muslims reject all these acts not only for being contradictory to their belief of Oneness but also for being paradoxical to the secular and democratic values of the country. Apart from this, these acts are also contradictory to the religious freedom of different religious units which are granted in the Constitution. So, the governments, both in States and at the Centre, should act in accordance with the Constitution and not to preach a specific religion and belief. Also, it should not impose the creeds and believes of the religion of the majority upon other religious units. Such acts of the government, whether being performed by making it mandatory or encouraging children to do so optionally, are not acceptable. According to the Constitution, the government has no right to represent any religion. Rather it is an individual right of the citizens.
7- The Board strongly condemns the attitude of the police and the governments to arrest and torture Muslim youths on the basis of mere suspicion. The Board considers it against democracy and justice to throw the Muslim youths behind bars for years in several states of the country; that too without any proper evidence and charge-sheet. The Board demands from the government to release all the innocents languishing in jails and complete the charge-sheets which are still under-preparation and present them in the court at the earliest.
The Board demands from the government to rehabilitate the Muslim youths acquitted of (terror) charges by courts and give compensation to them for illegally arresting and torturing them which has spoiled golden years of their life and earned them a dark future. The Board thinks that the compensation must not be less than Rs. 2.5 million. Apart from this, the Board demands from the government to take stringent punitive actions against the police officials responsible for implicating the innocents and subjecting them to torture.